After seven months of work, the Godot developers have announced the launch of the New version of «Godot 4.4» a free and open source game engine under the MIT license, designed for creating 2D and 3D games.
The new version of Godot 4.4 presents key improvements ranging from physical simulation to performance optimization on various platforms. This new version introduces significant changes in the Real-time editing, VR support and rendering efficiency.
Main new features of Godot 4.4
One of the new features that Godot 4.4 presents is the Physics simulation engine improvements by incorporating “Jolt” (an independent open source physics engine) as an alternative for simulation, providing greater stability and efficiency in complex scenarios. Additionally, 3D interpolation has been implemented, allowing for a smoother transition between physical states of objects, improving the visual experience on high-performance and low-latency devices.
Another of the improvements that Godot 4.4 presents is in rendering, since the ubershaders support, a technique that minimizes the locks associated with compiling shaders by providing universal precompiled versions. It has also been built-in AgX tone mapping.
La Engine architecture has also changed with la substitution of the old system de Constructive Solid Geometry (CSG) by Manifold, an open source library that improves stability and accuracy in the generation of complex 3D models.
In addition to this, in Godot 4.4 now the Developers can now run their games directly inside the editor, without the need to open separate windows. This makes it easy to debug and test games on Linux, Windows and Android. It has also been added a running edit mode, which allows changes to be made in real time, such as modifying the camera position without interrupting the simulation.
To facilitate working with three-dimensional objects, An option has been implemented that allows automatically adjusting models to surfaces within the scene. An advanced debugging tab has also been added, where it is possible to evaluate expressions in real time when a breakpoint is triggered.
For the part of the improvements of VR support and improvements on Android, the editor in Android now supports OpenXR, allowing the development of virtual reality games natively, in addition to having been verified Support for devices such as Meta Quest 3, Quest 3S, and Quest Pro 3D and the export capabilities on this platform have been improved, allowing you to generate and package APK files directly from the editor without external tools.
En GDScript (the Godot programming language) has received several improvements, including support for typed dictionaries, allowing you to write safer and cleaner code. Additionally, resources can now be identified by UIDs instead of file paths, making them easier to organize. The code editor has been optimized with contextual information popping up when you hover over functions, variables, and classes.
Of the other changes that stand out:
- Editor state is now automatically saved and restored after a restart, streamlining workflow.
- Webcam support on Linux, expanding the possibilities for interactive applications.
- Dynamic loading of WAV files, similar to OGG Vorbis files, for improved real-time audio handling.
- Integration of the Betsy tool, which allows packaging images in different texture formats.
- Optimization of the interface on mobile devices, achieving a more fluid experience adapted to each operating system.
Finally, if you want to know more about it, you can check the details In the following link.
Download Godot 4.4
If you are interested in being able to obtain this new version of Godot 4.4, you should know that it is available for download at this page for Windows, Mac OS and Linux. You can also find it at Steam y itch.io.
Last but not least, if you are going to migrate your existing projects to Godot 4.4, we recommend that you check out the following: migration guide to learn about the most important changes.